Asia, Pakistan—Karakoram, Lupghar Sar West

Climbs And Expeditions

Climb Year:

Publication Year: 1980

Lupghar Sar West. Our Tegernsee expedition was made up of Markus Fisser, Sepp Gloggner, Walter Janner, Alfred Müller, Sepp Öckler, Otto Parzhuber, Georg Wagner and me as leader. After an overland drive from Germany for six of the eight of us to Gilgit, we arrived at Nagar by Jeep on May 31. With 45 porters we set out up the Hispar River, forked left and ascended the Gharesa Glacier. At the glacier fork, we took the left branch north to reach Base Camp at Bardoom Tike at 16,250 feet on June 5. Above rose unclimbed Lupghar Sar, with its three summits of nearly equal height. We were at the foot of the southwest ridge, which rises to the western summit, the highest at 23,619 feet. The next day my brother Sepp and Müller climbed through very deep snow to a 19,350-foot forepeak on the southwest ridge, the site of Camp I. Four days later the same pair struggled upward from Camp I in hip-deep snow along a not too steep but corniced ridge. The ridge steepened and after a rock band, they cramponed to another ridge summit behind which they placed Camp II at 20,675 feet. Bad weather drove us back to Base Camp. When it finally cleared, on June 17 Sepp and I left Camp II for a summit attempt, aided by the trail breaking of Müller and Öckler up to some wild gendarmes which barred the way to the snow slope that led to the final buttress. Now alone, we two climbed four rope-lengths over terribly rotten rock. We bivouacked on the snow slope at 22,000 feet. The next morning, June 18, we climbed for hours unroped, since there was no possibility to belay on the incredibly rotten rock. Slabs and blocks of rock teetered on the slope, held by an insecure mortar of ice. We finally reached the top so late in the day that we had to make a miserable summit bivouac. The climb had been so dangerous that no further summit climbs were made.

Hans Gloggner, Deutscher Alpenverem

Asia, Pakistan—Karakoram, Lupghar Sar West

Lupghar Sar West. Our Tegernsee expedition was made up of Markus Fisser, Sepp Gloggner, Walter Janner, Alfred Müller, Sepp Öckler, Otto Parzhuber, Georg Wagner and me as leader. After an overland drive from Germany for six of the eight of us to Gilgit, we arrived at Nagar by Jeep on May 31. With 45 porters we set out up the Hispar River, forked left and ascended the Gharesa Glacier. At the glacier fork, we took the left branch north to reach Base Camp at Bardoom Tike at 16,250 feet on June 5. Above rose unclimbed Lupghar Sar, with its three summits of nearly equal height. We were at the foot of the southwest ridge, which rises to the western summit, the highest at 23,619 feet. The next day my brother Sepp and Müller climbed through very deep snow to a 19,350-foot forepeak on the southwest ridge, the site of Camp I. Four days later the same pair struggled upward from Camp I in hip-deep snow along a not too steep but corniced ridge. The ridge steepened and after a rock band, they cramponed to another ridge summit behind which they placed Camp II at 20,675 feet. Bad weather drove us back to Base Camp. When it finally cleared, on June 17 Sepp and I left Camp II for a summit attempt, aided by the trail breaking of Müller and Öckler up to some wild gendarmes which barred the way to the snow slope that led to the final buttress. Now alone, we two climbed four rope-lengths over terribly rotten rock. We bivouacked on the snow slope at 22,000 feet. The next morning, June 18, we climbed for hours unroped, since there was no possibility to belay on the incredibly rotten rock. Slabs and blocks of rock teetered on the slope, held by an insecure mortar of ice. We finally reached the top so late in the day that we had to make a miserable summit bivouac. The climb had been so dangerous that no further summit climbs were made.

Hans Gloggner, Deutscher Alpenverem

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